How Do I Trim Pumping Xenia?

I got asked this question today and although it seems to have a straightforward answer, I decided to write this short post to share with you how exactly I trim pumping Xenia. Feel free to add your own methods in the comments below!

To trim pumping Xenia, I use 3 tools:

a knife

plastic tweezers

scissors

Each tool has its different function, so if you want to follow along with my way, make sure you have them at hand. These tweezers and this knife seem to work for me.

First of all we start with the knife. Use the point of the knife to scratch off the tissue all the way at the bottom where it is attached to the rock. Do not cut the xenia, but make sure you can get off a piece of the tissue that’s attached to the rock. Once you got a piece loose, you can use the tweezers to grab this piece firmly at the base. (one part of the tweezers under the tissue that’s hanging loose and the other part on top where the tissue is still attached) Then simply pull along the direction where the tissue is still attached and you should be able to get it off.

Sometimes it can be easier to let the Xenia grow larger, so there is more tissue attached to the rock. The more it is attached, the firmer your grip when tearing it off. Also, when you have longer branches of Xenia growing, you can simply use scissors to cut the branches. Just make sure you catch the piece you just cut off, or in some weeks, you can trim Xenia in a whole bunch of new places. 🙂

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have other ways to trim your Xenia in the comments below!